Fate of the Jedi 07: Conviction by Aaron Allston

Author:Aaron Allston
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780345519580
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2012-08-27T14:00:00+00:00

HWEG SHUL, NAM CHORIOS

Kandra asked it a different way, just to be sure that she hadn’t misunderstood, that there would be no ambiguity. “So you’re certain neither Grand Master Skywalker nor either of his companions could have stabbed you?”

On the other side of the old, elaborately carved Ithorian wood desk, Mayor Snaplaunce nodded. “I was watching them take off when I felt the vibroblade enter my back. Official city telemetry followed the shuttle on its flight path until its movements became erratic. My assailant was someone here in Hweg Shul at the time, and was neither a Skywalker nor the young Khai woman.”

“You seem to have recovered fully.”

“I was saved by ignorance. My assailant drove his blade in where human kidneys would have been. With Ithorians, those exact spots are occupied by back muscle. So the wounds, while potentially dangerous because of blood loss, were not immediately fatal.”

“So if the Skywalker party is clear of those charges—charges that many of the Oldtimers seem to persist in leveling against them—why do they remain the subjects of an arrest warrant?”

Snaplaunce gave her a stern look, which was mildly disconcerting coming from a hammer-headed Ithorian. “There is still much we must know in our investigation of the murder of Dr. Wei, and the members of the Skywalker party remain persons of interest. There is the question of the very damaging storms now growing in number on Nam Chorios’s surface—”

“Such as the one this morning.”

“Yes. Storms that were last attested to when Grand Master Skywalker, operating under the name Owen Lars, first came to Nam Chorios thirty years ago. There’s also the slight but measurable rise across the planet in theft of speeders, which corresponds closely with the rise in planetary visitors. There are mysteries at work here. As a former officer of the peace, I’m uncomfortable with mysteries. So that warrant will remain in effect until we have answers sufficient to clear it.”

“Thank you.” Kandra glanced at Beurth, signaling the end of the official interview. The recording light on his holocam went dark, and he lowered the apparatus from his shoulder.

Kandra stood. “Mayor, you’ve been very helpful.”

Two minutes later, bundled against the cold, moving reluctantly out into the windy, debris-strewn streets of Hweg Shul, Kandra sighed. “The man is completely useless.”

Beurth offered her a series of porcine grunts.

She nodded. “I know. That’s the way his job is done. But he didn’t give us anything, the Newcomers and Latecomers don’t seem to know anything, the Oldtimers are being very tight-lipped, the ones who are known to be Theran Listeners don’t seem to be around, we haven’t seen Valin … there’s something going on, but it’s going to take a better journalist than me to dig it up.”

Beurth grunted again, at length, his tone cross.

Kandra offered him a sour face and mimicked his words. “Eyewitness accounts are unreliable anyway. Thanks, that really helps.” She sighed, watching her frosty breath rise. It was then torn apart by the daytime winds. “Still … let’s see if we can patch together something, anything, out of hard data and statistics.

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